Basic Basketball Speed and Agility Training

New Orleans Point Guard Chris Paul and Boston Celtics’ Rajon Rondo are arguably the two best point guards not only in the NBA but in the whole Basketball World. Both of them can manipulate and dominate the game if they want to and their most visible asset is their speed and agility. Using their superb speed and agility, they can pass by defenders easily to create scoring opportunities for themelves and their teammates.

This just proves that Speed and Agility is one of the most essential characteristics that a basketball players should try to improve. There are lots of basketball training drills that can improve a players’ speed and agility.

Speed is the players ability to perform a high-velocity movement while agility is the player’s ability to do explosive steps, change direction and accelerate again.

Yes, some of the speedy players obtained that skills because they have that natural talent since they were born, but if you want to improve your speed and agility, you can work on it by doing some basketball speed and agility training drills.

One of the most common speed training drill is the “Basic Sprint”. This drill will help improve a player’s reaction time, maximum acceleration, and decelaration. The basic sprint drill can be performed by running uphill and downhill repeatedly. Uphill running helps develop the hip’s flexibilty while the downhill sprints improves muscles coordination.

Agility Training Drills should have a high degree of muscle coordination and movement quality. Most sports team uses the Linear training but it’s more of a speed training. One of the most common agility drills is the use of basketball cones. The cones are placed 1 meters apart and a player should weave through those cones as fast as they can.

“Follow the Leader” drill is also a recommended agilty drill. This one is performed in a spacious area and with a training partner. Your partner should run as fast as he can in different directions and your jon is to shadow him. This will improve a player’s reaction and speed endurance.

These speed and agility training drills can definitely improve a player’s skill but the real improvement will be achieve if it will be done properly and wit a lot of dedication.